Rates are expected to continue to increase this year, so you are right to be worried. One option should be to refinance the home equity LINE into a home equity LOAN that has a fixed rate and is amortizing. Of course that would cause your payment to jump though. I wouldn't roll the two loans together...

You don't need a financial advisor - and I say that as a financial advisor and also as a 34 year old who inherited about $350k in my 20s. If felt much the same way you do now, but it was just jitters and I successfully deployed the windfall. You don't need to pay 1.25% per year INDEFINITELY - just t...

Sure you can afford to retire from what we can see here, but one thing not noted is whether you have long term care insurance. You may be planning to self-insure, which I think is fine, but run the numbers specifically for some worst case scenarios for your wife (and yourself) rather than looking at...

A common reason (maybe the most common?) that people file insurance claims on their roof is hail damage. Whether the roof is brand new or not does not impact the likelihood it will sustain hail damage during the next 12 months, so I can understand a new roof not necessarily helping your premium dire...

Hey there, fellow landlord here. I would not sell this investment for a variety of reasons. 1. Your perfect long-term tenant wants to renew their lease. 2. You don't have any better ideas on what to do with the proceeds. Vacations, cash and 529s aren't compelling. 3. This is generating a steady 7% r...

Go for the promotion. You may not even get it, but if you don't try you're more likely to regret it than if you don't. For one thing, the pay increase alone could cut your retirement date from 23 years to more like 15 or so if you bank the whole increase (totally ballpark estimate, but bottom line i...

I live in Dallas, so I know what you are talking about. But upgrading always means making your financial situation "worse" in the sense of increasing your expenses though. You're right, your home may have risen in value, but so have other homes. Only downgrading - or moving to a lower cost of living...

When we were in the same position, we started paying our 30 year like a 15 year. Only taxable holdings we had were cash and some rentals I'd bought before the marriage. Eventually we did it for so long (over a year) that we were comfortable going ahead and refinancing to a 15 year to lower our rate....

Here is what I would do if I were in your shoes: 1. Pay off the second mortgage from savings immediately. Continue making minimum payments on the truck. 2. Use your excess cash flow to add to savings for Feb/Mar. 3. In early April (just before the deadline), contribute $5500 to a Roth IRA for you an...

If I stick w/ the Federal govt, I would be eligible for a pension when I retire. If I work until 62, based on the current computation rules, the pension would be roughly 45% of my salary. Due to this pension, I've seen a lot of talk about putting more money into a roth acct as opposed to a traditio...

Congrats! I'm a banker and previously was a mortgage banker so I have a few insights. 1) We will look to get pre-approved this weekend for the loan, are there stellar institutions people would suggest? Right now, I've been searching extensively, but it has been hard to narrow down quality lenders wi...

My two cents (coming from a mortgage banker): Go with the 15 year fixed or don't bother. The goal of most refinances is to reduce interest expense (a secondary goal may be to fix the rate if you're currently in an ARM). Your current rate of 4.37% is not much higher than the 30 year and even the 20 y...

Congrats! I've been a landlord for 10 years next month, and I sure have learned some lessons the hard way. A few thoughts: 1 - I managed my properties (4 duplexes at first) all by myself in my 20s for 4-5 years, but I eventually hired a property manager. Cash flow actually went UP (lower maintenance...

You guys are doing great! A couple of thoughts I have: 1. Why are you putting 15% into a 401a if you have other tax advantaged space available? My husband defers into his 401a, but only because we've maxed everything else out. The distribution restrictions are usually very tight compared to 401k/40...

Banker here. ARMS are fine and can be very useful especially for first time buyers who are almost certain to move up within 5-7 years. FYI 80% of all 30 year fixed mortgages are repaid (either by sale, refi, or by simply being paid off early) in under 10 years.

You guys are doing great! A couple of thoughts I have: 1. Why are you putting 15% into a 401a if you have other tax advantaged space available? My husband defers into his 401a, but only because we've maxed everything else out. The distribution restrictions are usually very tight compared to 401k/403...

On investment accounts this is not an issue in the US. I work at a bank and while we have to check a drivers license or other method to verify names, people opt to have them show up in all kids of different ways on their investment and banking accounts. First initial, middle initial, full name spell...

Been using an excel spreadsheet for years. Surprisingly few transactions each year, even for 6+ units. Rent comes in, mortgage and taxes and HOA go out. Every few months there's some additional expense to jot down - plumber or city registration fee or "capital distribution" to my personal checking a...

My mother is in a remarkably similar situation, and I've been wrestling with this very question on her behalf. Much of the answer depends on your withdrawal rate. If you are actually following a 4% withdrawal strategy or something similar/fixed that requires the use of your entire portfolio, then I ...

How wonderful! This is a great list. -Get a will (and trust) and purchase term life insurance. I would add that adequate health and disability coverage are also a must. (And most people do not need a living revocable trust, by the way). You also may want to highlight that whole life insurance should...

Yes she should have life insurance, and - perhaps even more importantly - so should you. Be sure if the situation were reversed that your wife and child would be properly cared for as well. She could easily live another 4-5 decades, and your son could live even longer. If neither of them can work, t...

One benefit of having equities in taxable is being able to tax loss harvest when the market fluctuates downward. You say you plan not to draw from your IRAs until RMDs kick in, but you CAN always access them now that you're over 59.5. So in reality your accounts are all accessible and can/should be ...

Agree that you should probably try a different job in the same field first before doing something as drastic as going back to college. If you DO think a 4 year degree would be helpful though (or you just want one), find a larger employer with tuition benefits and work in their IT dept. For one, you ...

Assuming the payoff date for a loan is early and static in the following two scenarios, how much more money does it cost to pay minimum payments on the loan followed by a large lump sum, than to pay extra payments on the loan from start to finish? The additional COST to suspending the payments is s...

Here's some real world salary info for you. I was an engineering manager for 20+ years. In a particualr niche in the elctronics industry, private sector, manufacturing/tech. Our pay is highly dependent on location and skill set. Current office in average cost of living area in PA has about 25 engin...

Assuming the payoff date for a loan is early and static in the following two scenarios, how much more money does it cost to pay minimum payments on the loan followed by a large lump sum, than to pay extra payments on the loan from start to finish? The additional COST to suspending the payments is s...

It sounds like you can certainly do a simple will online. You have one named heir so there's little risk of any battle over your will. And the will would really only be addressing assets without beneficiaries - checking account, house, car, possessions. A will doesn't let you avoid probate, but prob...

As a landlord, I NEVER let my tenants know where I live. The last thing you want is people showing up at your doorstep at all hours with non-emergency requests and complaints. More risky is a bitter former tenant (or current tenant you're trying to evict) vandalizing your homestead or generally caus...

I've read that appx 95% of Americans will see their taxes go down under this bill - including most high earners. Not to mention that if you own stocks this tax bill (and Trump's election) has already been a clear windfall in the form of increased share prices. Many companies plan to raise dividends ...

If you're comfortable with 100% stocks, then you should stay the course indefinitely. But it will be difficult to know how comfortable you really are with that asset allocation until you encounter a downturn. I was 100% stocks for the first 10+ years of my investing life. I was younger, I had high r...

Hello again everyone - thanks again for your help. I have a follow-up question: When is it "ok" to sell the funds that have gained substantially? My husband and I had always thought we would get a loan for all of the construction of our retirement home, and pay it back when we sold our primary resi...

SHORT COMMUTE. I've done both, and the long commutes were detrimental in many ways - and I didn't even have kids or a spouse I was missing at the time. I had to rotate for 18 months with a company to a different location every 4 weeks. Shortest commute was 1.5 miles, longest was maybe 30 miles (but ...

To be fair a lot of the webinars and training sessions for financial professionals are just now being rolled out regarding the new law. I agree though he should have confirmed this to find out the answer prior to passing along any information to you.

I'm a financial advisor. From what I can see in your post, you don't need a financial advisor. You need to simply do the following: 1. Contribute 15-25% to your retirement accounts (maxing a Roth IRA trumps investing in a 401k so do that first). The portfolio you outlined at the bottom of your post ...

I agree that you should look into refinancing to a 15 year mortgage. You could lower your rate to around 3.4% today, and you'd be automatically paying it down faster than you are now (unless you are more than 15 years into a 30 year loan). If you think you may pay it off in less than 10 years, it ma...

Well I wasn't going to post this, but since I was prompted by this new thread title, here goes! My husband and I surpassed a net worth of $2,000,000 yesterday for the first time. :moneybag With bonuses pending and a strong savings rate, we should stay above this level even if/when the market correc...

He currently has a $900k portfolio, mostly in Vanguard low cost index funds. ~$275k in taxable, $175k Roth IRA, and $450k 401k. [...] What advice would you give to him. If your friend doesn't quickly find a new job, he maybe be in a very low tax bracket this year. If so, roll over the 401k into a T...

Sounds like you guys are starting off strong! You say your portfolio is in the low 5 figures, so the important thing to realize is that your savings rate will have by FAR the biggest impact on your portfolio. It's important to learn and appreciate investing concepts, but in the early stages your ass...

You aren't missing anything. I have had the option in one of my 401k accounts to do one click rebalancing as well, but I have never seen that in any direct brokerage account (Vanguard, Fidelity, Scottrade, etc.). The weird thing isn't that you are unable to do this on most platforms; the 401k plans ...

[ She does hold a few individual stocks that have been great performers, including FB (57% annualized return), AAPL (29%) and Amazon (55%). BRK has averaged 14.5% during her hold period. Of course she holds some underperforming stocks as well, including Ford and AT&T, but the FANGs more than made u...

And PS her 80/20 portfolio has averaged a return of 14% a year over the last 10 years. Are we talking average or CAGR. CAGR would make this adviser Buffetesque for an entire ten year period. Well she does hold a substantial amount of Berkshire Hathaway. :) I just looked it up, and actually her retu...

2) Munis - especially in state, secondary market, tough to analyze stuff. This is less applicable if you're in a state with a very good (i.e. generally Vanguard), state specific muni fund. But for those of us without, we've already got a tailwind from state tax savings. I'm in Missouri - 6% state t...

I think a cash cushion of 3 months expenses is appropriate if you have no steady income from pension or social security - or even if you do, just for peace of mind. Beyond that you're drawing from your portfolio, probably at least quarterly, so there's no financial need to hold more cash than that (...

To be honest I haven't even told my husband yet, and I'm sure we won't do anything special to celebrate. I feel a bit selfish/guilty even being excited about this milestone. # 1 Go celebrate. We don't celebrate enough. You can certainly afford it. # 2 Don't feel guilty about having the opportunity,...

As far as your mothers account only costing $11K - that is what you calculate, however many of these brokerage accounts holding securities are frequently lent out via securities lending arrangement to outside parties unbeknown to the person holding the account. I doubt this. For individual accounts...

Well I wasn't going to post this, but since I was prompted by this new thread title, here goes! My husband and I surpassed a net worth of $2,000,000 yesterday for the first time. :moneybag With bonuses pending and a strong savings rate, we should stay above this level even if/when the market correct...

The costs could be yet higher if the adviser actively switches funds, each time reducing principal by the front load. So a case worse than just the AUM fee plus high ER funds is an adviser that on top of that switches you through funds. E.g. 3 switches with a front load of 5% in that time frame wou...